Page 338 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

After the heartbreaking pictures of lifeless body of baby Aylan went
viral in the western media, we had pointed out that it would be wrong
to expect the shock caused by this incident to be permanent and had
warned that no one should expect dramatic changes. The world will
forget this and go back to its usual ways, just like it happened so many
times before.

There is no doubt that Aylan's tragedy caused important changes
in people's hearts but the truth of the matter is that the situation in the
political arena remains unchanged. It is true that for a short time Euro-
pean powers tried to take some of the responsibility with regards to

the refugees but they later decided otherwise. This was the main reason
behind German Chancellor Merkel's visit to Istanbul last week.
Although Merkel came to Istanbul mostly for her own country, in

a sense, she was also here as a representative of Europe in general. She
wanted to find ways to curb the influx of refugees, as Germany was

336 A Helping Hand for Refugees